Hotel Gloria Copacabana

... the perfect place to relax for a couple of days and here is where we found with La Cupula. It had 4 gardens with hammocks and deck chairs, beautiful views of the lake, a large kitchen, tv room and restaurant, plus one of the nicest owners ever. Even though it was slightly more expensive than usual it was worth it.

We explored the town which had a huge variety of restaurants but we were after a market to buy food to cook for ourselves, for money but ...

... even had a name. There was a mini van already on the ferry, we rode on (well Ian did with me walking and trying not to fall down between the cracks in the planks of wood which lined the bottom of the ferry) which was interesting! Ian parked the bike up on the right hand side, I was a little uncertain as to whether the side stand would cope since the planks which did not have cracks seemed pretty soft, but it seemed fairly stable. In the usual South American style, we ...

... hoped was something to do with the tranlation, although was starting to get suspicious when I realised their English was better than mine) to the South of the Island to get picked up again. They were opting for the latter so of course we could not look like wimps and opt out of the walk/hike.

The boat trip itself on Lake Titicaca is extremely slow, not sure if there are speed limits or if it was more to do with ...

... peaks up to 4,600m and the valleys and foot hills down into the Tarija Valley at 2000m. The Inca trail was a trading route connecting the fertile valleys of Tarija to the Altiplano. It is still used today by the few communities that live in the reserve. I left the house and drove to the Village of Los Pinos where the trail begins. I left the car at 8am looking forward to a good days walking in the hills. The hike to the town of Calderilla is meant to take about ...

Le matin, je pars a l'office du tourisme en quete d'information. Je rencontre Magda, une veille dame francaise qui travaille dans une ecole ici depuis 8 ans. Elle me renseigne sur la parc nationnal, le chemin de l'inca et me donne l'adresse de L'Alliance francaise pour plus d'info. Nous visitons la ville, son marche et ses ...

... there is also a small zoo I talked about in my e-mail telling about Linda's birthday. The zoo is about half the size of Pollard Park in Blenheim or about the size of Tingley Beach in ABQ. The main 'commercial area' has a large 'open air' (roof only) market where you can buy all sorts of meats, fruits, vegetables, grains, breads, and basic toiletries. There are many things I cannot identify especially in the stalls that seem to sell medicinal herbs. There ...

We land in Tarija whihc is a sleepy, pretty town and its lovely and warm. So in need of relaxation, we spend a couple of days enjoying the cafe culture in the main plaza, we quickly try all the restuarants and then start a roration. Unfortunatlet Heidi is not very well and spends a couple of days in bed, not only that but getting bitten to pieces, whilst I three feet away in the bed next door am completely bite free! Iīm obviously donīt taste that good, which I am very thankful for ...

... shut the whole town down for about a week and a half; the bus and planes were shut down, all businesses, etc. Besides, there were very loud explosives going off during the night, every night. Someone said it was TNT blasted off by the miners. Well, it could have been, it was that loud. I was caught in some teargas during a demonstation, but it wasn't bad; I quickly got out of there. But now, I have that on my excitment list! The San ...